I’m a sucker for stories that re-envision the past with magic, which is precisely what Arrowsmith does: it’s World War I with magic, and all that entails (wizards, dragons, trolls). The storyline is fairly straightforward coming-of-age, horrors-of-war stuff, but the artwork is gorgeous and the world building is cool. Apparently, a second volume’s in the works, and I’ll probably check it out at some point.

The survival-at-all-costs story never really grabbed me, and Arielle Jovellanos’ artwork felt underwhelming compared to her other work.

I really liked the first volume of Department of Truth (read my review), and Volume Two keeps with the trippy conspiracy theories, pseudo-histories, and crypto-zoology, as well as some surprisingly emotional moments. Martin Simmonds’ artwork continues to astound.

I liked this volume OK, but more importantly, it got me hyped for volume two.